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EVEREVE - Embracing the modern mom

Shopping at Evereve is a family affair. While the boutique clothing retailer features fashions for active moms, each of the 70+ stores caters to the entire family. Kari Ihle, Director of Construction for Evereve, puts it this way, "We’re looking at the big picture of mom’s life and trying to create a welcoming experience in our store. We want her to feel comfortable bringing the kids with her."

THE LITTLE THINGS MATTER

Among its many family-friendly features, Evereve stores were stocked with bottled water to hand out when anyone got thirsty. But according to Kari, the thinking behind offering bottled water evolved. "As we thought about what’s important to Evereve as a company and what’s important to our moms, it was clear that we both want to hand down a better environment to our children. So we began to look at water options that were more sustainable."

HEALTHIER HYDRATION

Many stores already had drinking fountains installed. But to make life easier for busy moms on the go, Evereve looked for a convenient way to allow her to fill the reusable water bottle she carried in the car, as well as the sippy cups used by her kids. The Elkay® ezH2O® bottle filling station seemed to offer an ideal solution that was healthier for both the environment and the customer.

"When we can do something that’s good for our customers, good for our employees and good for our planet, that's what makes all of us at Evereve very happy."

Kari recalls, "I’d seen ezH2O before in airports and in my yoga studio. And I was familiar with the Elkay brand because we had their drinking fountains in a number of our stores. We did look at some other brands as well, but based on Elkay’s reliability and the cost, we landed on the ezH2O."

A PROMISING START

Evereve had its first ezH2O bottle filling station installed in a Chicago area store early in 2015. Since then, the rollout has expanded to dozens of stores across the country. The new units have freed employees from having to replenish and reorder bottled water for the stores, reduced the amount of plastic waste put into store recycling bins, and made it easier for everyone to grab a cool drink when they need one.

"When you take out the monthly cost of buying bottled water, we’re taking our operations costs down for each individual store. And you don’t see a significant increase in your water bill by having a bottle filling station." But still, Kari sees the biggest benefit in terms other than dollars and cents. "When we can do something that’s good for our customers, good for our employees and good for our planet, that’s what makes all of us at Evereve very happy."